TTY (“TeleTYpewriter”)—also known as TDD (“Telephone Device for the Deaf”) or TT (“Text Telephone”)—devices and services were developed in the 1960's as a way to allow individuals who were deaf and/or hearing-impaired and/or speech-impaired to use the increasingly ubiquitous telephone. Traditionally, these devices enabled users to type and read to communicate over the phone, sending and receiving typed messages from point-to-point and point-to-multipoint over various types of communications channels. Different types of TTY devices were capable of utilizing a variety of different communication media. Eventually, in the later part of the twentieth century, much smaller and compact (often handheld) versions of the TTY were manufactured and made available to users.
Eventually, in order to facilitate communication between hearing/speech-enabled users with telephones, and hearing/speech-impaired TTY users, TTY relay services were offered. In a TTY relay service, a communication assistant would convert voice-to-text and text-to-voice communication between parties, displaying the text on the user's TTY. In its modern form, this type of service—often referred to as Telecommunications Relay Services (“TRS”)—is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), which requires all telephone companies that operate private branch exchanges (a private telephone system within an organization) to implement three-digit 711 dialing for access to TRS.
Other solutions exist for deaf and/or hearing/speech-impaired individuals seeking to use the telephone, sometimes in combination with a TTY device, such as, for example, Voice Carry Over (“VCO”) systems, Hearing Carry Over (“HCO”) systems, and Speech-to-Speech (“STS”) relay services. In a Captioned Telephone Service (“CTS”), individuals with a special “captioned telephone” may communicate by speaking, listening (to the extent they are able), and reading what the other person is saying through captions displayed on the device. Also available are Video Relay Services (“VRS”), Internet-based systems for individuals with video conferencing equipment or videophones who communicate in American Sign Language.
In the context of a corporate call center, or any centralized office that receives or transmits a large volume of requests by telephone, TTY devices have historically caused efficiency problems for call operators. Typically, a call operator receiving a call from a TTY device would be required to physically retrieve a TTY device located somewhere at the call center before the call could be accepted. These difficulties led to the recent advent of software-based solutions for accepting calls from deaf and/or hearing/speech-impaired customers, offered by companies such as NexTalk®. These solutions allow a call operator, when receiving a TTY call, to immediately recognize the incoming call as a TTY call and open a dialogue screen which enables the parties to communicate. These solutions have dramatically improved efficiency because no dedicated TTY machine needed, so the need for call operators to physically obtain a TTY device from a limited number of similar devices shared by all the members of a call center is eliminated.
A financial institution may often provide the TTY number for deaf and/or hearing/speech-impaired customers on the back of a credit, debit, or other financial card associated with the institution. Similarly, customers searching for customer service numbers on a financial institution's website may find the TTY and non-TTY phone numbers in close proximity with one another. This can also present problems, however, where hearing/speech-enabled customers mistakenly call the TTY number. For a large financial institution receiving a high volume of daily calls, these customer mistakes may be sufficiently frequent to cause efficiency problems for call operators as well as for the call centers. Accordingly, solutions are needed which address the difficulties in routing and distinguishing between TTY and non-TTY calls.
Still further, because of the recent developments in the TTY field, there does not currently exist any solution for businesses to automate the classification types of TTY calls received. Currently, software-based call management solutions are communication interfaces, and do not offer any type of informatics functionality. Ideally, such data could be made available to users over the system in real time. This would be optimal to the goal of improving the TTY call process itself (e.g., mistaken calls from hearing/speech enabled customers). Further, the ability to automatically classify incoming TTY calls by, e.g., Line of Business (“LOB”) would also serve a business objective for large companies, particularly financial institutions. Accordingly, solutions are needed which allow for improving the efficiency of this process.